Melbourne Metropolitan Area and Environs in January 2013: Rainfall much less than that usually received.

Located in the Central District at the head of Port Phillip Bay,
Melbourne is Victoria's State Capital. Here, overnight minimum
temperatures were much warmer than those usually experienced and averaged 16°C
(departure from normal 1.7°C). That the overnight temperatures in Melbourne are
higher than those in most surrounding localities is a consequence of the city
being under the influence of the effect of urbanisation (cities are usually
warmer than their rural surroundings, especially at night, because of heat
stored in bricks and concrete and trapped between close-packed buildings).
Daytime maximum temperatures were warmer than those usually experienced and
averaged 27.3°C (departure from normal 1.4°C). Total rainfall for the month was
8 mm, this being much less than that usually recorded (normal 47.3 mm,
percentage of normal received 17%).

Selected Melbourne suburbs

In the suburb of Essendon, which is located some 15 kilometres to the
northwest of the city centre, overnight minimum temperatures were warmer than
those usually experienced and averaged 14.5°C (departure from normal 1.2°C).
Daytime maximum temperatures were warmer than those usually experienced and
averaged 27.5°C (departure from normal 1.2°C). Total rainfall for the month was
8 mm, this being much less than that usually recorded (normal 42.8 mm,
percentage of normal received 19%).

The suburb of Laverton is located some 30 kilometres to the southwest
of the city centre, and is often under the drying influence of the rain
shadow from the ranges of western Victoria. Here, overnight minimum
temperatures were slightly warmer than those usually experienced and averaged
14.2°C (departure from normal 0.5°C). Daytime maximum temperatures were warmer
than those usually experienced and averaged 26.7°C (departure from normal
1.1°C). Total rainfall for the month was 6.8 mm, this being much less than that
usually recorded (normal 39.3 mm, percentage of normal received 17%).

In the suburb of Bundoora, which is located some 20 kilometres to the
northeast of the city centre, overnight minimum temperatures were near to those
usually experienced and averaged 14.4°C (departure from normal 0.3°C). Daytime
maximum temperatures were warmer than those usually experienced and averaged
27.6°C (departure from normal 1.1°C). Total rainfall for the month was 3.7 mm,
this being much less than that usually recorded (normal 46.5 mm, percentage of
normal received 8%).

In the suburb of Moorabbin, which is located some 20 kilometres to the
southeast of the city centre, overnight minimum temperatures were near to those
usually experienced and averaged 14.1°C (departure from normal 0°C). Daytime
maximum temperatures were warmer than those usually experienced and averaged
26.6°C (departure from normal 0.9°C). Total rainfall for the month was 2.4 mm,
this being much less than that usually recorded (normal 44.5 mm, percentage of
normal received 5%).

Notes

A Monthly Climate Summary is prepared to list the main features of the weather in Melbourne Metropolitan Area and Environs using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated. Later information, including data that has had greater opportunity for quality control, will be presented in the Monthly Weather Review, usually published in the fourth week of the month.

This statement has been prepared based on information available at
10 am on Friday 1 February 2013.
Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change
as new information becomes available.

Averages are long-term means based on observations from
all available years of record, which vary widely from site to site.
They are not shown for sites with less than 10 years of record, as they cannot then be calculated reliably.
The median
is sometimes more representative than the
mean
of long-term average rain.

The Rank indicates how rainfall this time compares with the climate record for the site,
based on the
decile ranking
(very low rainfall is in decile 1, low in decile 2 or 3,
average in decile 4 to 7, high in decile 8 or 9
and very high is in decile 10).
The Fraction of average shows how much rain has fallen this time as a
percentage of the long-term mean.

The ACORN-SAT dataset
is being used for temperature area averages from December 2012 onwards.
The major change from earlier datasets is that the ACORN-SAT dataset commences in 1910, rather than 1950,
and hence rankings are calculated using a larger set of years.